1. Cross Site Collection Navigation
SharePoint Saturday Bend Oregon
October 4, 2014

2. Kyle Petersen kyle@pdxportals.com
SharePoint Architect - Petersen Consulting LLC SharePoint Consulting 2004 – – Microsoft Certified Solutions Master for SharePoint Microsoft based application development since 1987

3. What’s the issue? SharePoint has navigation
SharePoint has lots of navigation
Top level navigation bar
Quick launch
Managed Navigation
Custom Sitemap providers
Site Directory
Search
All work fine within the scope of a single site collection
Sometimes our architecture is not under our control
There are lots of SharePoint solutions for navigation

4. Organizational Structures
There are lots of various ways in which SharePoint farms are architected.
Sometimes you end up making site boundary decisions
Sometimes you just inherit new site collections
Can’t always contain everything within a single site collection. I’ve always been confused why Microsoft has so many ways to create new site collections and encourages us to do this, but offers no way to tie them together except through search.

5. Reasons for multiple site collections
Separation for security
Separation to reduce size of content database
Separate Web applications
Separate Farms
Merging Farms
“It’s always been that way”

6. Tackle two issues today
Part I How can I have a global menu for ALL my sites
Across Sub Sites
Across Site Collections
Across Web Applications
Part II (Time permitting) How can I have a directory of all my sites
Automatic registration in the directory
Security trimmed
Want to create a solution so that you can architect your sites freely.
Separate into site collection because of size or database requirements
Separate into web applications if needed.
But still be able to have a single global navigation to move between the sites

7. Cross Site Navigation Lots of solutions available
Business Process Managed
Every site collection specifies the same top level navigation items
Changes need to be made at every site collection
Custom Sitemap Provider
XML site map was my favorite
Manage XML file on each WFE server (_layouts/…)
Managed Navigation
Pin / Link navigation items
Nightmare to maintain
Manual Method (Business Process)
Custom Sitemap Provider
Can also easily create a custom data source that reads the nodes in from other storage such as a SharePoint list.
Managed Navigation seemed so promising
Still limited to a single site collection at a time

8. A new solution Global Navigation Menu
Use the Managed Metadata to configure the navigation structure
Can create any structure needed
Strongly suggest you limit to 2 levels
Users get frustrated trying to navigate to tertiary menus
Going to create a new global menu
Not going to take away any of the other options
Site collections can still share the top nav bar
Webs can still use the quick launch

9. Our Demo Model

11. Implementation Details
This is not going to replace the top level navigation menu
It could, but in this example this is a NEW global navigation menu
Want to allow Site Collection owners to maintain their own navigation within the site collections
Define Top level navigation
Control Inheritance of sub sites
New Global Navigation will be placed on the SharePoint Bar
SharePoint online requires special consideration

12. Managed Metadata Benefits
Single location to maintain our menus
Don’t need to manually edit sitemap files on servers
Don’t need to write custom providers
Can edit navigation using a browser
Controlled access so site owners cannot mess up or navigation
Configure who has rights to edit the term set
Leverages the capabilities of Managed Navigation
Configure and test links
Control Display Order
Nested levels of navigation
We need somewhere to define and manage the menu structure
With managed navigation the TermStore provides us with all of the features we need

13. Implementation There are 4 Components to the solution
1. Define the menu structure in the Managed Metadata
2. Create client side JavaScript to render the menu
3. Use jQuery & CSS to style the menu
4. Package and deploy

14. 1. Managed Navigation

15. Sort Order

16. 2. Script to generate the menu
Use client side JSOM code to access the managed metadata
Couple of hacks:
Manually configure the name of the Managed Metadata provider
Manually configure the GUID of the Term Set

18. Simplified Example Access Term Store Iterate through the terms
Build menu structure in browser DOM
Reposition element in the DOM
Wire up the event handlers

19. <ul class="ldd_menu" id="ldd_menu">
<li>
<span style="width: 127px; height: 25px;">Contoso</span>
<div class="ldd_submenu" style="display: none;">
<ul>
<li class="ldd_heading">Corporate</li>
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
</ul>
<li class="ldd_heading">Los Angeles</li>
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li class="ldd_heading">Portland</li>
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li class="ldd_heading">San Francisco</li>
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li class="ldd_heading">Seattle</li>
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
<li><a href="
</div>
</li>

20. $(document).ready(InitSPSGlobalNav); // document.ready
function InitSPSGlobalNav() {
var scriptbase = _spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl + "/_layouts/15/";
// Load the Taxonomy Functions we will need to call
$.getScript(scriptbase + "SP.Taxonomy.js")..done(function () {
var context = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var taxonomySession = SP.Taxonomy.TaxonomySession.getTaxonomySession(context);
// HACK #1
var termStore = taxonomySession.get_termStores().getByName('Managed Metadata Service');
// HACK #2
var termSet = termStore.getTermSet('e093ba58-ba8a-480b-8f4c-0b722b5e0d62');
var terms = termSet.getAllTerms();
context.load(terms, 'Include(IsRoot,Labels,TermsCount, CustomSortOrder,Id, Name, PathOfTerm,Parent, LocalCustomProperties, TermSet.Name)');
navOut = '<ul class="ldd_menu" id="ldd_menu"><li><span style="width:127px;height:25px;">Contoso</span>';
navOut += '<div class="ldd_submenu" style="display:none">';

21. context. executeQueryAsync(Function
context.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, function (sender, args) {
var termsEnumerator = terms.getEnumerator();
// Create an array for the parent nodes
var parents = [];
// populate the parents
while (termsEnumerator.moveNext()) {
var currentTerm = termsEnumerator.get_current();
var children = currentTerm.get_termsCount();
// Save a reference to the parent
if (children > 0) {
// Save our Parent menu items
parents.push(currentTerm);
var parent = currentTerm.get_name(); }

22. for (var i = 0; i < parents.length; i++) {
var parent = parents[i];
var parentID = parent.get_id();
// Write out the Parent entry
var item = '<ul><li class="ldd_heading">' + parent.get_name() + '</li>';
navOut += item;
termsEnumerator.reset();
while (termsEnumerator.moveNext()) {
var currentTerm = termsEnumerator.get_current();
var children = currentTerm.get_termsCount();
// Find the children of this parent
var myParentTerm = currentTerm.get_parent();
var myParentID = myParentTerm.get_id();
if (myParentID.equals(parentID)) {
// Child Term -- write out a LI
var item = '<li><a href="' + currentTerm.get_localCustomProperties()['_Sys_Nav_SimpleLinkUrl'] '">' + currentTerm.get_name() + '</a></li>'; }
// Close out the parent list
navOut += '</ul>'

23. Create the Placeholder on the SuiteBar
public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {
SPWebApplication webApp = (SPWebApplication)properties.Feature.Parent;
if (webApp != null)
var placeholder = "<div class='ms-core-brandingText' id='GlobalMenu'>Contoso1</div>";
webApp.SuiteBarBrandingElementHtml = placeholder;
webApp.Update(); }

24. Need to wait for the placeholder to be rendered
var interval = setInterval(function () {
// Check if our element is rendered yet
if ($('#GlobalMenu').length)
// Inject into page
$("#GlobalMenu").html(navOut);
//Apply Formatting
InitMenu();
// all done so stop the timer loop
clearInterval(interval); }
}, 100);

25. 3. Custom Rendering Simple jQuery to handle the hide / show scripting
Create onMouse and onClick handlers to hide / show the menu
Create onMouse to highlight the selected value
Move the menu to where we want it
Simple CSS to handle the styling
Styles for the background color
Styles for the heading
Styles for the menu items
Styles for the footer

26. function InitMenu() {
var $menu = $('#ldd_menu');
$menu.children('li').each(function () {
var $this = $(this);
var $span = $this.children('span');
$span.data('width', $span.width());
$this.bind('mouseenter', function () {
$menu.find('.ldd_submenu').stop(true, true).hide();
$span.stop().animate({ 'width': '850px' }, 300, function () {
$this.find('.ldd_submenu').slideDown(300);
});
}).bind('mouseleave', function () {
$this.find('.ldd_submenu').stop(true, true).hide();
$span.stop().animate({ 'width': $span.data('width') + 'px' }, 300); }

27. ul.ldd_menu ul{
list-style:none;
float:left;
border-left:1px solid #0072C6;
margin:20px 0px 10px 30px;
padding:10px; }
li.ldd_heading{
font-family: Georgia, serif;
font-size: 14px;
font-style: italic; font-weight:bold;
color:#ffffff;
text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #000000;
padding:0px 0px 10px 0px;
ul.ldd_menu ul li a{
font-family: Arial, serif;
font-size:10px;
line-height:20px;
color:#fff;
padding:1px 3px;
ul.ldd_menu ul li a:hover{
-moz-box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #333;
-webkit-box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #333;
box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #333;
background:#0072C6;
ul.ldd_menu{
margin:0px;
padding:0;
display:block;
background-color:#0072C6;
list-style:none;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;
border-top:1px solid #0072C6;
border-bottom:1px solid #0072C6;
border-left:10px solid #0072C6;
-moz-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #0072C6;
-webkit-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #0072C6;
-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #591E12;
z-index:100; }
ul.ldd_menu a{
text-decoration:none;
ul.ldd_menu > li{
float:left;
position:relative;
ul.ldd_menu > li > span{
color:#fff;
height:30px;
line-height:30px;
cursor:default;
padding:0px 20px;
text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #fff;
border-right:1px solid #0072C6;
border-left:1px solid #0072C6;
ul.ldd_menu .ldd_submenu{
position:absolute;
top:25px;
width:550px;
display:none;
opacity:0.95;
left:0px;
font-size:10px;
background: #0072C6;
border-top:1px solid #0072C6;
-moz-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #0072C6 inset;
-webkit-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #0072C6 inset;
-box-shadow:0px 3px 4px #0072C6 inset;
z-index:100; }
a.ldd_subfoot{
background-color:#f0f0f0;
color:#444;
display:block;
clear:both;
padding:15px 20px;
text-transform:uppercase;
font-family: Arial, serif;
font-size:12px;
text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #fff;
-moz-box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #777 inset;
-webkit-box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #777 inset;
-box-shadow:0px 0px 2px #777 inset;

28. 4. Packaging (on-premise)
Deploy the files to the servers (_layouts folder)
Inject our rendering script onto every page
Farm, Web Application or Site Collection scoped feature
Feature adds scriptlinks to every page
Add our placeholder into the suite bar
Call the rendering process at the right time

29. Packaging <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="
<CustomAction ScriptSrc="~SiteCollection/_layouts/15/GlobalNavigation/jquery min.js" Location="ScriptLink" Sequence="90" />
<CustomAction ScriptSrc="~SiteCollection/_layouts/15/GlobalNavigation/globalnavigation.js" Location="ScriptLink" Sequence="10000" />
<CustomAction Id="MegaCSS" Location="ScriptLink" ScriptBlock="document.write('<link rel="stylesheet" After="Corev15.css" type="text/css" href="_layouts/15/GlobalNavigation/GlobalNavigation.css"></' + 'link>');" Sequence="203" />
</Elements>

30. Enhancements Support for Minimal Download Strategy (MDS)
Performance Optimizations
Batch process to generate HTML structure
Cache HTML in memory

31. SharePoint Online Considerations
Scripting
Lookup the name of the managed metadata provider
Deployment
Can only deploy to a Site Collection (Sandbox Solution)
Separate deployment feature on just the root site collection
Single place to maintain scripts / CSS
Placement
Cannot use SuiteBarBrandingElement technique (no web app in O365)
SharePoint bar has different CSS ID’s and Classes
MS Changes these frequently
Rendering
Need to let Office 365 complete the SharePoint bar rendering

32. References Global Navigation MDS Mega menus
MDS
enabled-sites
Mega menus

33. Site Directory

34. Warning!!! Entering 400 Level topic
Requires custom application development

35. Site Directory Issues Have hundreds or thousands of sites
How do I find them all without just clicking through sites
Don’t want to maintain a manual site directory
Custom SharePoint list with every site listed
Site directory should be security trimmed. You should not see sites you do not have access to.
This is controversial. Sometimes you want to let users discover sites they don’t have access to so they can request access.
Multiple ways to solve this issue.

36. Need Need a Directory for all the sites
Need a way to “categorize” sites so we can organize our phone book
Must be security trimmed so we do not know about sites we don’t have access to.

37. Site Directory Solution
Define metadata on each site to categorize them
Location (Portland, Seattle, LA, …)
Type of site (Intranet, Project, Document Archive, …)
Status of site (Active, Archived, …)
Uses Search Index to find sites
Global Site Directory shows all sites
“Mall Directory”
Search Refiners
Search Term

38. Site Directory

39. Site Directory Solution
3 Components to our solution
1. Add Metadata to the site
Use web Property bag
Describes ways we would want to categorize our sites
2. Add the Metadata to the Search Index Create Search Managed Properties mapped to our Property Bag Values.
3. Custom Search Display Create custom Search Display templates to render our results

40. Site Metadata Lots of options Regions Departments Site Usage
Portland – Bend – Salem
Oregon – Washington – California - …
North America – Asia – Europe - …
Departments
Sales – HR – Marketing – IT - …
Site Usage
Intranet – Collaboration – Communities – Applications - …
Site Status
Active – Archived – Top Secret (do not list in any directory)
Product / Services
Contoso Electronics – Tailspin Toys – Northwind Bikes - …
Business Units
Contoso - Tailspin - Northwind

41. Site Level Metadata Simple for this demo Location Site Usage Portland
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Corporate
Site Usage
Intranet - Permanent Sites that are part
Project - Linked to a specific project or initiative
Social – Temporary sites

42. Metadata Setting Property Bag Values Secret Sauce (new in 2013)
$web = get-spweb “
$web.Properties[“property_name"]= “property_value”
$web.Properties.Update()
Secret Sauce (new in 2013)
Adding Property to Indexed Properties $web.IndexedPropertyKeys.Add(“property_value")
$web.Update()
See PowerShell Script SetSiteProperties.ps1

43. Property Bag in SharePoint Designer

44. Search Index Create Managed Properties in Search Schema
Metadata becomes Searchable
siteLocation:Seattle
siteUsage:Social

45. Managed Properties Key Concepts
Create new Managed Properties (siteLocation & siteUsge)
Must be queryable
So we can use siteLocation:Portland
Refinable
So we can include in refinement panels

50. Search Display Create a custom Search Display Template
Use the Search Web Parts
Search Results
Search Refiners

51. Search Directory

52. Search Display Template
<html xmlns:mso="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:msdt="uuid:C2F B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882"> <head> <title>PDX Site Item</title> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <mso:CustomDocumentProperties> <mso:TemplateHidden msdt:dt="string">0</mso:TemplateHidden> <mso:MasterPageDescription msdt:dt="string">Displays a result tailored for a SharePoint site.</mso:MasterPageDescription> <mso:ContentTypeId msdt:dt="string">0x C03B61C64EC4A04F5361F </mso:ContentTypeId> <mso:TargetControlType msdt:dt="string">;#SearchResults;#</mso:TargetControlType> <mso:HtmlDesignAssociated msdt:dt="string">1</mso:HtmlDesignAssociated> <mso:ManagedPropertyMapping msdt:dt="string">'Title':'Title','Path':'Path','SiteLogo':'SiteLogo','SiteDescription':'SiteDescription','CollapsingStatus':'Collapsing Status','DocId':'DocId','HitHighlightedProperties':'HitHighlightedProperties','FileExtension':'FileExtension','ViewsLifeTime':'ViewsLif eTime','deeplinks':'deeplinks','importance':'importance','FileType':'FileType','SiteLocation':'SiteLocation','SiteUsage':'SiteUsage'</m so:ManagedPropertyMapping> </mso:CustomDocumentProperties> </xml><![endif]--> </head>

53. Search Display Template
<body> <div id="Item_Site"> <!--#_ if(!$isNull(ctx.CurrentItem) && !$isNull(ctx.ClientControl)){ var id = ctx.ClientControl.get_nextUniqueId(); var itemId = id + Srch.U.Ids.item; $setResultItem(itemId, ctx.CurrentItem); _#--> <div id="_#= $htmlEncode(itemId) =#_" name="Item" data-displaytemplate="SiteItem" class="ms-srch-item" > _#=ctx.RenderBody(ctx)=#_ </div> } </body> </html>

54. <html xmlns:mso="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:msdt="uuid:C2F B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882">
<head>
<title>PDX Site Item</title>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<mso:CustomDocumentProperties>
<mso:TemplateHidden msdt:dt="string">0</mso:TemplateHidden>
<mso:MasterPageDescription msdt:dt="string">Displays a result tailored for a SharePoint site.</mso:MasterPageDescription>
<mso:ContentTypeId msdt:dt="string">0x C03B61C64EC4A04F5361F </mso:ContentTypeId>
<mso:TargetControlType msdt:dt="string">;#SearchResults;#</mso:TargetControlType>
<mso:HtmlDesignAssociated msdt:dt="string">1</mso:HtmlDesignAssociated>
<mso:ManagedPropertyMapping msdt:dt="string">'Title':'Title','Path':'Path','SiteLogo':'SiteLogo','SiteDescription':'SiteDescription','CollapsingStatus':'CollapsingStatus','DocId':'DocId','HitHighlightedProperties':'HitHighlightedProperties','FileExtension':'FileExtension','ViewsLifeTime':'ViewsLifeTime','deeplinks':'deeplinks','importance':'importance','FileType':'FileType','SiteLocation':'SiteLocation','SiteUsage':'SiteUsage'</mso:ManagedPropertyMapping>
</mso:CustomDocumentProperties>
</xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body>
<div id="Item_Site">
<!--#_
if(!$isNull(ctx.CurrentItem) && !$isNull(ctx.ClientControl)){
var id = ctx.ClientControl.get_nextUniqueId();
var itemId = id + Srch.U.Ids.item;
$setResultItem(itemId, ctx.CurrentItem);
// Get a value from the search results
var location = $getItemValue(ctx, "SiteLocation");
_#-->
<div id="_#= $htmlEncode(itemId) =#_" name="Item" data-displaytemplate="SiteItem" class="ms-srch-item" >
<div>Title: _#=ctx.CurrentItem.Title=#_</div>
<div>Path: _#=ctx.CurrentItem.Path=#_</div>
<div>SiteDescription: _#=ctx.CurrentItem.SiteDescription=#_</div>
<div>SiteLocation: _#=ctx.CurrentItem.SiteLocation=#_</div>
<div>SiteUsage: _#=ctx.CurrentItem.SiteUsage=#_</div>
<div>variable: _#=location=#_</div>
</div> }
</body>
</html>

55. Multiple Uses Global Site Directory Region / Department Directory
Find any site
Region / Department Directory
Hosted on Web Page
Show all child sites within the parent (region or department for example)

56. Enhancements Create Application page to manage the site properties
Use Dropdown lists to set properties
Event Receiver (Web Provisioned)
Propagate site properties from parent site

57. SharePoint online Considerations
PowerShell is more complicated
Invoke CSOM through PowerShell or write command line utility
Can’t control full crawls
How to request a site crawl
Can’t define a managed property to be refinable
Have to use the predefined RefinableString00-99 values
Map to our crawled term and create alias

58. Re-index a site in O365

59. Site Directory Summary
Configure Property Bag Values on Sites
Add Properties to the Site index
Full Crawl
Map Crawled Property to Managed Property
Define property name (used in search)
Set correct attributes (queryable, Refinable)
Customize the Search Results
Search Results
Result Type
Search Display Template